Fiction:  A Force of Nature

It is said that life imitates art, and in many ways this is true.  Often people will even quote Shakespeare without even realizing it with phrases like “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” “I will not budge an inch,” “A pound of flesh” and “Green with envy”.  When J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series became popular, there was a sudden surplus in the population of new baby girls named Hermione.  Even one of NASA’s own spaceships was named Enterprise after the famous space vessel of the sci-fi series Star Trek.  Life truly does imitate art, but this statement is only made true because no matter what, all types of fiction will teach people something.  Whether the message is obvious, subliminal or somewhere in-between, all works of fiction contain just that; a message.  What this lesson teaches and whether or not the readers listen are what matter.  Fiction is not just a simple means of entertainment for people to waste their time with, but a force of nature that can shape humanity’s perspective.

There are many reasons why people will generally like fiction.  One of the most obvious is that fiction quite simply intrigues people.  Particularly in the realm of science fiction and fantasy, authors can get away with a lot of unrealistic characters, settings and situations that one would never in a million years find in a non-fictional story.  But what does it matter if they are not real characters?  People just as easily bond with fictional characters as they would a real person.  There is an excitement and an escape that comes from learning about people and places that one has never learned of before, even if it is not real.  Even in stories that are considered realistic fiction, or historical fiction, there are generally plots and characters that are, in one way or another, made up.  Fiction has a way of telling people the very things that they would like to hear the most.  It gives them the thrill of adventure without the adventure, in essence.  The great escapades and epic quests in fiction will say, more often than not, that good will always triumph over evil.  Romance fiction preaches that true love and attraction go hand and hand.  Horror gives people the thrill of life and death without having to get up out of the comfort of their seat.  And fantasy has always insisted that anything is possible if one just believes and has a little bit of faith in the impossible.  These things may or may not be legitimate or true, but no matter, it is the sort of things that people will smile upon.

Although the majority of people embrace fiction for what it is, there is also a rather significant amount of people who frown upon fictional works for the very same reasons.  Among many intellectuals, there is a belief that non-fiction is far superior in value to fiction.  They see fiction as merely for selfish entertainment and non-fiction for learning about the “real world.”  After all, how is anyone supposed to learn about reality from something that is clearly not real at all?  They find little to no value in reading and watching works of fiction for more than recreation, and believe that it should never be compared with the stone cold truths.  For example, a housewife who reads many romance novels may begin to compare her messy chubby all-around-average husband with the dashingly handsome beaus of the fiction she reads so often.  This unhealthy situation of misconception is clearly bad news for her poor husband who cannot help it if he is nothing like Brad Pitt or Fabio.  In this way, fiction has the potential to become destructive when not made or received properly.  Still, this is not all there is to works of fiction.

When written with good principles and intentions, fiction also has the ability to be rather constructive.  When a book is morally sound then its readers, especially adolescent readers, will sop up the lessons it teaches like miniature sponges.  In the words of fiction author Wayne Thomas Batson, “Young readers can absorb lessons about life. ‘Ah, that character lied and it blew up in his face, so therefore I won't make that mistake.’"  This is one of the many reasons why parents so often will read children bedtime stories.  These are meant to teach their children a lesson, as well as relax them before going to sleep.  Books such as Dr. Seuss’ The Sneeches even have surprisingly deep lessons about acceptance and discrimination hidden beneath cute drawings and silly poetry.  As well as teaching morals, reading has proven time and time again to improve a person’s language skills, and even strengthen their creativity.  On top of all these benefits, fiction is also a great entertainment medium with the power to revolutionize quite a lot for the better.  Not all fiction is made with good morals and ethics, but the good side of things should never be disregarded.

One of the greatest and most widespread methods in fiction for spreading good morals and generally proving a point is the allegory.  This is quite simply where fiction imitates something else that perhaps is not fiction.  Allegory is a tool widely used by authors to make a point about an issue without directly addressing it.  Sometimes the allegory is bluntly obvious, like in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress where biblical morals are laid out in abstract, but hardly subtle ways.  His main protagonist is called Christian, for example. Christian’s directly literal name makes it clear to the readers what he is meant to represent.  Along the way Christian runs into even more interestingly named supporting characters, such as Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, Despair, Faithful, Hopeful and Evangelist, whose names are just as straightforward as Christian’s.

Still sometimes allegories are a lot less obvious, as in Arthur Miller’s drama, The Crucible.  At first glance, The Crucible appears to be only a story about a group of puritans during the Salem Witch Trials.  As the story plays out, readers witness first hand the madness of the court system in Salem.  No one is safe.  Anyone can be accused of witchcraft.  Yet if the story was only about a witch-hunt, Arthur Miller likely would not have bothered to write it.  A quick background check on the author and the time period in which he wrote this work of fiction reveals that the true witch-hunt was the McCarthy Trials of the Cold War era when anyone could be accused of being a communist.  In this dark time of our history, the punishment for being called out as a communist was arguably as serious as the punishment for witchcraft in Salem.  It caused panic and paranoia amongst the people, both fearing the communists themselves and fearing the consequences of ever being associated with one.  Arthur Miller must have had a great feeling of déjà vu, seeing all that was happening around him and remembering the stories of the past.  It was his intent to show this to the people through his play, and that was exactly what he did.

By now it is apparent that allegory’s true purpose is to present ideas in a new way so that they become clearer to the audience.  Oftentimes certain notorious subject matters will cause people to become closed off or upset, so much so that authors are often afraid to touch such ideas.  Even the bravest of novelists and screenwriters will usually limit such sensitive issues to a subplot.  Almost all people will become stubborn about subjects like religion and racism.  After all, how many people would actually admit to being a racist or openly let their faith be questioned?  Yet if one takes the subject and quite simply tosses it into another less familiar situation, or even another less familiar universe, the answer often becomes clearer.  Take for example, Star Trek. This popular franchise has been talking about numerous controversial subjects for several years, and among these subjects is racism.  During the Cold War era, Russians became the primary bad guy to most Americans, just as Starfleet was often frightened to death of the Klingons and their aggressive antics.  The Klingon race was purposely allegorized with not only Russians, but any form of people that America considered scary or uncivilized.  Their forehead pieces were even modeled after the vertebrates of dinosaurs to give them a primeval look.  A certain line from Star Trek VI:  The Undiscovered Country, “You’ve never heard Shakespeare until you’re heard it in the original Klingon” was actually borrowed from the Germans, who at the time had a whole crazy pitch going that Shakespeare was actually secretly a German.  On its own, “Shakespeare was a German” is an outrageous idea that most would shake their heads at, but allegorized so that now is “Shakespeare was a Klingon” makes it that much more ridiculous and thus laughable.  Yet the most obvious of the Russian-Klingon allegories would have to be a catastrophic event that took place in the sixth movie.  A horrible accident caused a moon inhabited by Klingons to simply explode, and yet even in the aftermath the Klingons were resistant to help from Starfleet and acted as if nothing was wrong.  The moon’s destruction is hauntingly similar in both the situation and the reactions of those involved to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.  Allegory makes a clear point clearer and a vague point less vague.  After all, if it involves Russians and Germans people are likely to insert personal biases and opinions into decisions.  Now if someone takes the same situation and puts it in a universe with Vulcans and Klingons, one sees things through a whole new perspective.  It is like learning to look through the right end of the telescope as opposed to the wrong one.  The truth more easily reveals itself.

Even still, the truth that fiction can reveal is strongly dependant on whether or not the work of fiction in question is made with truth and conviction.  Fiction depends on the two forces of nature, which are the author and the audience.  The author creates and inspires the work, and the audience interprets it at their own free will.  Both of these things come to pass nearly subconsciously.  Published fantasy author, Wayne Thomas Batson says, “Any writer worth his salt will put a bit of himself into the story--many times it's unconscious. But it's still there.”  At the same time, people too will learn lessons from the things fiction teaches, even if the author intended no lessons at all.  As the saying goes, “monkey see, monkey do.”  Often these lessons can become misleading.  Numerous times, movies and books have encouraged already troubled and unstable human minds to go a step farther and do the unthinkable.  Other times the very same forces of fiction have stimulated already dignified and compassionate people to become truly great individuals.  Works of fiction have even been known to save lives.  There exist countless cases where fiction has given hope to the desperate and wisdom to the foolish.  The power of fiction, which many will often downplay as simple entertainment, truly is a force to be reckoned with.  This is why admirable and principled authors have such a noble purpose.  It is their works of fiction that can either lead people to do great good or great evil.

Fiction has the power to inspire an individual.  Many people are familiar with the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but in much the same way as The Crucible’s intriguing history reveals more about its depth, this novel’s true intrigue is only obvious after doing a little research on the era in which it was written.  The story centers around the events regarding a group of fated people aboard a submarine called the Nautilus.  Today, submarines are not an unusual occurrence at all, but in 1866, the year the book was written, submarines were merely a dream.  They were an idea spawned from this novel, which was considered science fiction at the time it was written.  Jules Verne likely thought at some point, “Wouldn’t something like a submergible ship be really amazing?” and so he wrote about it.  He was the first author to produce this particular breed of fantasy, and for this, Jules Verne is often regarded as the father of science fiction.  Those who read it began to agree with this notion, and this became the first step to inspiring already inquiring scientists to turn this dream into a reality.  The author likely would not have considered in his wildest imagination that this idea of his would become reality so quickly.  Those involved in making the submarine accredited the author for the idea of an underwater vessel so much that the first submarine built by the U.S. was named after the one mentioned in his novel, The Nautilus.

Works of fiction, when made popular enough, often become permanent parts of culture, much in the way that Shakespeare’s works have taken root in everyday language.  Possibly more intriguing however is fiction’s power to manipulate the masses in a far-reaching way.  Almost all Americans have at least heard of Star Wars at some point or another, and another great portion of them would even be considered Star Wars Geeks.  There are clubs, websites, published fan fictions and entire conventions centered on this fictional universe.  Thousands upon thousands of people all around the world celebrate this science fiction saga.  It does not take a genius to speculate that the messages eluded to in Star Wars will surely affect many people.  Luckily for those who are fans of this movie franchise, the messages seem to be morals of how even the most evil of people can be redeemed and “Try?  There is no try.  Do or do not,” a great pearl of wisdom from Master Yoda himself.  Now imagine what would happen if Star Wars was preaching things like how there is no redemption and everyone should just give up on life?  If something like that were to become popular, then it would be reasonable to predict a sudden increase in the rate of depressed people, and even suicides.  People should be greatly thankful that George Lucas is not putting such messages in his works.  If he did, then his fan-base would be full of drastically different people than most are used to seeing.

Fiction is such a great and powerful force that it has even been recognized by the United States and virtually any other government that has existed since the creation of fiction itself.  After all, if fiction was only a harmless means of entertainment as many have accused it of being, then why would censorship even exist?  Throughout history, countless works of fiction have been censored, challenged and banned for the ideas and themes instilled inside of them.  Children’s literature is the main focus of censorship by far, and it is very rightfully so.  As mentioned before, children soak up most any ideas given to them, and it is often better to regulate such things.  Sometimes even reasonable restraint becomes a bit extreme however.  In certain cases, seniors in high school have been required to gain permission slips before reading Hamlet, Macbeth or King Lear, due to violence and other implied themes.  Most are also familiar with how each of the Harry Potter books have been challenged due to how it promotes witchcraft and the Wicca religion.  Philip Pullman’s fantasy novel The Golden Compass, was challenged based upon it being written by an atheist who used anti-christian, anti-catholic and generally anti-religious themes.  Language has also been a big reason for bans in the realm of children’s literature.  Mark Twain’s books Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn have both been challenged on account of using the racist word “nigger” which, at the time it was written, was a rather common thing to call a black person.  Ironically enough, years earlier when these books were first published, they were originally challenged for being too anti-racist and portraying such a heroic black character.  

Even when it comes to adults, there are certain things that just should not be available to the general public.  This is why it is so hard to find books describing how to do certain illegal ventures.  If such information or thoughts were in the wrong hands then it might influence society in a drastically bad way.  Yet censorships are hardly limited to descriptions of illegal activity.  After all, it is common sense to say that a book with explicit descriptions on how to commit murder is unquestionably bad news.  More often books are banned for reasons involving judgment and viewpoints.  Books that challenge beliefs, morals, lifestyles, and race are what anger the most people, and so these are what are commonly censored from the public.  Oddly enough, in the same respect, it is the authors who write the most scandalous and thought-provoking literature that are often the best sellers.  It is a very narrow tightrope which authors must tread upon, and not all people are truly capable of such a feat.

As well as this, many works that encourage ideas considered treasonous are first on the censorship-hit-list. Nowhere is this more apparent than in corrupt governments.  Censorship has played a great part in many government regimes, which of course includes the bad kind of governments.  In Nazi-Germany, none would have found any form of literature containing anything that even may have implied rebellion against Adolph Hitler’s totalitarian rule.  Censorships kept all ‘bad’ ideas out of the minds of the people, and encouraged what they saw as ‘good’ ideas instead.  Things were of even more strict circumstances in the harsh Soviet-Russia, where even religion was illegal.  Not only would these books never be published, but the author would almost surely be put to death for writing such treasonous fiction, even in private.  These were corrupt but intelligent men, and they saw fiction, as well as many other entertainment mediums, as a way to control the people as they saw fit.  It stands to reason that if Hitler and Stalin saw such a “trivial” matter as fiction to be a threat to their reign then something is clearly powerful about imaginary tales.  

It is true that fiction is not the same as a true story, and it is also true that not all fiction leads to good things.  All people should be wary of certain kinds of fiction.  Even still, it is wrong to say that the biographer is greater than the novelist.  Such power, capable of great good, rest in the hands of those who create fiction and such power should never be taken lightly.  It is the duty of authors to write with conviction, and readers to read with both discretion and open minds.  Half of it is the author’s work, which is inspired, produced and then with luck shared.  The other half is the reader’s observation, which results in them agreeing, disagreeing or simply ignoring.  In the hopes of authors and readers alike, fiction will no longer be ignored.  For in the end, it is apparent that fiction is not a force that should be ignored or underestimated.  It is in the mind of the humble novelist where revolutions arise.